You can reach many places in Peru by plane. It is perfect solution for those who wants to see more in short amount of time or needs to cover not only north, but also south part of the country. You might face some problems when buying internal flight. We will tell you here about possible traps from airline companies and point things worth considering that might save your time and money.
Each country has its own rules. The same situation is in Peru. For us Europeans it is hard to understand that some rules do not apply, some are valid and it is difficult to accept this fact.
We might pay a lot for trying to keep to European standards. What do you need to do? First of all you need to change your mindset, switch from your home realities to the ones within Peru. It is worth to listen to people that have this experience already. You need to read, ask, even few times.
Where you can make a mistake? Mainly while buying internal flight tickets. There are two things that you need to keep in mind:
- Common internal flights delays
- Lack of knowledge what traps you might face
Internal flight delays and international flight
Reality is Peru is that you will rarely get what you want on time. The same case is with flights. The most popular route Lima – Cusco – Lima, even though it has hundreds of flights, can be very treacherous. In order not to have problems, it is better not to come back to Lima from Cusco the same day we have our international flight. It is safer to spend one additional night in the capital and take flight back home the next day.
Why?
Distance between Lima and Cusco is quite big to travel by car within one day. You need at least 23 – 24 hours. If your flight gets delayed or it gets canceled, there is no other way of transport.
Normally flights get delayed even by few hours. Some airlines have bigger, some smaller issues with this, but it happens to all of them. It is even more common during rainy season. Due to bad weather conditions very often flights get cancelled. You can expect such surprises in January and February.
Cheap flights in Peru and traps awaiting travelers
There are six main airlines in Peru. Two of them are quite expensive, three are located in the middle and one very cheap which appeared in 2017 as a long awaited revolution on Peruvian sky.
Expensive airlines
Those are two big companies, offering the biggest number of flights in most attractive time. They are reliable, gets delayed not so often, but their prices are much higher. Unless you are Peruvian or resident, then price is slightly different. Unfortunately very often tourist is not aware of it and cannot go anywhere even he/she has bought a ticket.
Why is that? Airlines in their packages offer different tariffs, including economic. And those cheapest ones are valid only for Peruvians or residents. Of course airlines are mentioning this fact on their web pages, but not in the way it is easy to understand when buying the ticket for the first time.
NOTE: Always remember to check if the flight ticket in given price is for everyone or only for the ones who presents ID or carnet extranjeria.
Cheap airlines
Those airlines offer much cheaper options. They often have very interesting promotions, but probability of flight getting delayed is high. It is not said that it does not happen to the best ones, but those earliness have some problems with this factor.
My favorite company is PERUVIAN. I like them, because they have many interesting offers and they do not charge extra for changing flight. You need to cover only differences in the price if such exists.
You save already at the beginning 15 USD, because this is the amount, other airlines charge for such service. I need to rebook my ticket very often, so for me it is very important. This airline are not as restrictive as for luggage and even you need to pay extra, it is not expensive – 1 USD for each kg.
The cheapest airlines, but with limitations.
We were writing about those airlines in more details here, so below I will just recall the most important points. Price is the most attractive in this case. Each flight has set of tickets for not more than 20 USD both ways. Flying in Peru for almost no money has become possible since 2017. There is only small ‘but’. You won’t be able to take this flight if you have a lot of luggage. It is perfect scenario for Peruvians and travelers who have main base in Lima or Cusco and travel light to other destinations. Each additional kg cost a lot and at the end total save might not take place.
We do not know yet, how punctuality looks like there. We will share some more details soon.
If you have any questions regarding flights in Peru, let us know in comments section. The same if you want to share your experiences with local Peruvian arilines. Let’s discuss!
